Did you ever consider just how much your employees' job satisfaction impacts your organization's success? Keeping teams happy leads to greater productivity, motivation, and profitability.
According to Gallup, 20% of employees feel engaged at work. Engagement directly correlates with job satisfaction, meaning that if employees are satisfied, they are more likely to work diligently at their jobs. So what's happening with the other 80%?
This article looks at the many aspects of nurturing high job satisfaction in your workplace. We also include tips about how you can measure your company's employee satisfaction and then start making improvements based on the results.
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The benefits of high employee satisfaction
Everyone wants a job they won't dread having to do every day. They want to work in a healthy environment with friendly management and coworkers, do meaningful work, and get paid well.
If your business prioritizes its employees' job satisfaction, you can reap considerable benefits!
Lower turnover
Satisfied employees are less likely to leave their current jobs. The more fulfilled they feel at work, the stronger their attachment to their job, coworkers, and company. When you value your employees' feelings about work and make an effort to address problem areas and increase their satisfaction, they'll want to stick around.
Higher productivity
Employees who are satisfied with their jobs tend to be more productive at work. They'll have a sense of dedication that drives them to work hard to make a difference and achieve the company's objectives. Happy employees will also rarely miss work, so they'll accomplish more than employees who avoid work because they're stressed.
A positive company culture
77% of adults consider a company's culture before applying to work there.
Glassdoor's Mission & Culture Survey 2019
People are happier working toward company goals that align with their own beliefs and priorities because they're doing work that's meaningful to them.
If you create a positive workplace culture that nurtures purpose in your company's vision, your team members are more likely to feel connected to their job and coworkers.
Loyalty
High employee satisfaction breeds loyalty to the company. Employees who feel that their jobs are fulfilling and their employers value them will strive to support the company's mission. Loyal employees tend to praise the organization highly, which benefits the company's image and attracts more job seekers and quality talent.
The importance of employee satisfaction
The most important factors influencing job satisfaction are all things you and your business can control. As a manager, you have the power to make decisions and have conversations that affect how your employees feel at work. Consider how your management choices will impact employee satisfaction in the following ways.
Working environment
A pleasant, safe environment is essential to employee satisfaction. When your team members come to work in a clean workplace with a dedicated, comfortable space for them to work, they'll feel happier.
The best work environments have well-maintained amenities for their employees and prioritize safety. Your goal is to lessen stress and make your team members feel welcome when they come to the office.
Many companies have transitioned to remote work, but you can still create a good work environment by ensuring that your company's software and file systems are organized and up-to-date. Technical issues become a common source of frustration for work-from-home employees.
Employee pay and benefits
Adequate salary and benefits tend to be one of the most significant job satisfaction factors. Employees want to feel valued. If their compensation is proportionate to their work, they'll be more satisfied with their job.
Human resource management can conduct regular surveys to measure satisfaction with the company's compensation and use the results to make improvements.
Latest insights on fairness and pay
Officevibe survey data research revealed that 42% of employees don’t think they’re paid fairly for their work. 1 in 4 employees doesn’t trust that they’re paid fairly compared to similar roles within their organization. And only two-thirds of employees trust that they are paid fairly compared to similar roles in other organizations.
The State of Employee Experience, From Here on Out
Respectful treatment
Good work relationships are an important factor in any employee's satisfaction, and treating your team with respect is how you foster positive interactions in the workplace. Good feedback is always respectful to the recipient, whether positive or negative.
Officevibe Pulse Survey data found that 64% of employees think the quality of their feedback should be better. Employees want managers who treat them with dignity and value their contributions. If you make an effort to respect your employees, they'll be more likely to work hard and feel satisfied with their job.
Job security
Job security is a significant source of anxiety for many employees. No one wants to feel like their job is constantly on the line, and providing clear reports on your organization's goals and achievements helps prevent that worry.
It's also vital to recognize your employees' work when they do well. If you let them know that you value their presence in the company, they'll feel more satisfied and secure in their job.
Career path
Employees feel more satisfied with their jobs when they believe they're on a clear path forward in their careers. Offering training courses or reimbursing your employees for outside classes shows that you appreciate them enough to invest in their career development and gives them the resources to grow within your company.
What's the difference between job satisfaction and engagement?
Employee satisfaction and employee engagement are similar but not interchangeable terms. You can determine job satisfaction by evaluating your team members' feelings about their work and various aspects of the company.
Employee engagement has more to do with the output of your employees. Not necessarily output in terms of a high volume of work completed; rather, they put passion and energy into their work, commit to quality and genuinely care about the company’s success. Increased job satisfaction does lead to higher employee engagement, which means higher productivity, increased employee retention, and improved profitability.
Measuring job satisfaction and engagement
Communication is the key to measuring job satisfaction and employee engagement. If you want to find out how your employees feel, you'll have to ask them.
You can create employee satisfaction surveys to get feedback on different facets of the company. Since they are typically anonymous, surveys are also a great way to get honest input on ways your organization can improve.
Increase employee satisfaction using surveys
A good employee satisfaction survey should be concise and easy to comprehend for your employees. Since the data will serve as a guide to help you increase employee satisfaction in your company, you need to ask the right questions in your survey.
Officevibe Pulse Surveys are simple, efficient tools for gauging job Officevibe Pulse Surveys are simple, efficient tools for gauging job satisfaction and engagement. They dig right down into the very reason employees find satisfaction so that you can foster an environment that supports it. They'll save you time and provide you with an easy-to-read engagement report that you can share with your team and senior management to help monitor and improve different aspects of your company.
Employee feedback
Surveys aren't the only way to get feedback from your employees, and you should consider multiple angles of approach to ensure you won't miss any crucial details.
Other methods of gathering feedback about job satisfaction include:
- One-on-one meetings
- A suggestion box
- eNPS and ESI scoring
While some team members might prefer to give feedback through an anonymous survey or suggestion box, others feel more comfortable expressing their thoughts and concerns in a group meeting or directly to you in a one-on-one meeting.
Improve job satisfaction and engagement
Once you've gathered information on your employees' satisfaction levels, you can use that feedback to make a plan for improving job satisfaction. As a result, your company can achieve higher productivity, find influential motivation factors, and improve problem areas in your business.
Response to feedback
Employees appreciate it if you respond to their feedback with action. When they see that you care enough to make positive changes based on their suggestion, it empowers them to keep giving that valuable feedback. A satisfied employee feels heard in the workplace.
Training and development
Creating opportunities for training and development through classes and personnel programs will help your employees progress in their careers. Human resources professionals might focus on finding these chances to build up their team members and cultivate a company culture that cares about investing in its employees. Being well-trained also leads to increased satisfaction.
Recognition and rewards
When your team members go the extra mile, it's vital to show your appreciation. Giving them a small bonus or gift in exchange for their hard work will encourage them to keep up their excellent performance. They'll be more excited about their achievements, and their motivation will be infectious to the rest of the team.
Recognition is easy to give and guaranteed to satisfy employees.
Autonomy and flexibility
Employees will have higher job satisfaction when you give them space to work. That could mean allowing them to work from home sometimes, permitting flexible work hours, or taking a hands-off approach to your employees' tasks and projects.
Satisfied employees are critical to the health of your company
An employee who enjoys their job will work harder and stay with the company longer, so creating a space of positivity and respect in the workplace can contribute to your company's success. If you appreciate the importance of employee satisfaction and make improvements based on the feedback you get from your team, you'll put your business on the path to greater success.
Officevibe is a convenient, incredibly friendly employee experience platform that puts all your tools for managing employee engagement and satisfaction in one place so that you can focus on what's important. Over 50,000 managers around the globe use Officevibe to get honest feedback to help them better understand their teams' needs. It's an easy-to-use tool that will bring you closer to your team, help you grow as a manager, and ultimately help your organization to thrive!
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